A slow-starting Pinecrest football team surrendered 17 first-quarter points to Hoke County on the way to a 24-6 defeat Friday in Raeford.
The Patriots, 1-5 overall and 0-3 in the Mid-Southeastern Conference, came to life in the second half, shutting the Bucks out while scoring their first touchdown in three conference games.
Tyrone Daniels scored for the Patriots on a 10-yard fourth-quarter run, capping a 92-yard drive. The touchdown was set up by a 38-yard pass from quarterback Robert DeBernard to Daniels.
After Dereck Wike ran for five and nine yards on the first two plays from scrimmage in the game, the Patriots were held to 28 net yards for the rest of the half. All six of their first-half possessions ended in punts.
On the other side of the ball, the Patriot defense was unable to cope with the wide attack of the Bucks. Josh Wright went right to score from 13 yards out on the first Buck possession, capping a 71-yard drive.
Short fields helped the home team tack on a 29-yard field goal by Hal Goodman and a 20-yard touchdown run by Shawn Patterson on its next two possessions for the 17-0 lead.
Late in the first half, Jamel Hurst returned a punt 55 yards for the final Buck touchdown of the evening.
Patriot coach Larry Adams was disappointed with his team’s first-half effort, especially on offense.
“We had a great week of practice,” he said. “I came here with reasonable expectations that we were going to be in this game even though we knew they had more athletes than we do. They (Hoke) came out set up on defense just the way we knew they were going to. The thing that’s disappointing is that we didn’t put any effort into it at all.”
With mostly Buck reserves on the field in the second half, the Patriots out-gained the home team 118 yards to 62 and had a 6-3 edge in first downs.
After being shut out 57-0 by both Scotland County and Richmond Senior the previous two weeks, the late touchdown was a welcome event for Adams and his players.
Starting from their own eight after the only Buck punt of the contest, Wike picked up 35 yards in six carries, Daniels had a run of 11 yards and DeBernard completed a seven-yard pass to Richard Butler. Then came the big pass that led to the touchdown run by Daniels.
After the touchdown, Malcolm Purcell recovered the onside kick by Roger Harris, but the Patriots were unable to make a first down.
“We did kind of regroup a little bit after the bad beginning,” Adams said. “We’re looking for the little successes. In the second half we started tackling better, playing with our heads and thinking a little bit about what was going on.”
The Bucks, celebrating Homecoming, improved to 4-4 overall and 2-1 in the conference.
The game was delayed for about 30 minutes early in the second half when the Patriots’ Demitress McDougald suffered a dislocated right shoulder after making a tackle.
He was transported to the hospital after receiving treatment on the field.
Wike was held to 59 yards in 22 carries. Overall, the Patriots had 160 yards of total offense to 229 yards for the Bucks.
In spite of the rain that fell intermittently, there was only one fumble and no turnovers by either team in the game.
The Patriots are at home next Friday at 7:30 p.m. against Jack Britt.
Pinecrest 0 0 0 6 — 6
Hoke 17 7 0 0 — 24
Scoring: (H) Wright 13 run (Goodman kick); (H) Goodman 29 field goal; (H) Patterson 20 run (Goodman kick); (H) Hurst 55 punt return (Goodman kick); (P) Daniels 10 run (kick blocked).
